Some Canadians believe that treaties are long-ago things that are no
longer relevant. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, however, reported that
Aboriginal leaders without exception called for a treaty implementation and renewal
process.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, Turtle Island (North America) was home to
millions of Indigenous Peoples, who lived in thousands of distinct societies with their
own laws, customs and economies. Land was integral to their economic, social and spiritual
well-being.

As Sharon Venne, Professor of Native Law program at the University of Saskatchewan and
PhD candidate in international Law and Indigenous Issues at the University of Alberta,
explains: "Indigenous Nations have their own legal systems and political accords for
entering into and concluding Treaties. Treaty-making among Indigenous Peoples has a long
history: prior to the arrival of non-Indigenous Peoples to the Americas, Indigenous
Nations were making treaties among themselves. An oral tradition, treaty-making was a
means to create peace and friendship, to cement alliances between and among Nations,
sometimes against other nations.

"When European governments needed to legitimate their settlement of the Americas,
they engaged in the diplomatic process of negotiating legal arrangements with Indigenous
Nations to make Treaties. It is a simple fact that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas
owned and occupied their territories at the time of contact, when Indigenous Peoples
entered into Treaties with the British Crown, they signed as independent nations and not
as subjects of the British Crown; had the British Crown perceived Indigenous Peoples as
subjects, the making of Treaties as between nations would not have been necessary."

The original Treaties, those which predated Confederation, such as the 1760 Peace and
Friendship Treaty signed between the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy and the British
Crown, were clearly international agreements between sovereign peoples. This international
character of treaties has never been denied by the Canadian court system. The Supreme
Court of Canada has ruled that the provision within section 35(1) "did not create
aboriginal rights; rather, it accorded constitutional status to those rights which were
existing." In other words, Aboriginal rights and treaty rights are not something
that can be granted to Aboriginal peoples from Canadians but are based on historical
factors.

When we talk of Aboriginal land and treaty rights, these are based on the concept of
Nation, that is to say, a people living in a specific territory and having a common
history, ancestry, language, culture, and so on. It is a mistake to deny that non-European
peoples possess their proper history and to use "race" theories (that originate
from Europe) to discredit the legitimacy of Aboriginal peoples' rights.

Aboriginal inherent rights are the base points from which all treaty negotiations take
place, and the measure by which compromises are made. These include the right to use the
land and the natural resources, to maintain their own languages, cultures, social systems
and governments.

Treaty-making is the appropriate starting place for resolving conflicts between
Indigenous nations and the successor state  in ways that are peaceful and meaningful
for both parties, in the spirit and intent of the original Treaty-making.